Saturday, April 22, 2006

The Scottish company which introduced to the world a glass specially designed for whisky – the one given to Glasgow’s Whisky Club members as part of their welcoming pack – is to receive a Queen's Award for Enterprise, regarded as Britain's most coveted commercial award.

East Kilbride-based Glencairn Crystal has won the Award for Innovation, recognising the design and successful marketing of the Glencairn Glass, which is now used by all Scottish and Irish distilleries and many more worldwide.

The Glencairn Glass has a unique and stylish design, tapered for better 'nosing'. Crafted to be comfortable in the hand, the glass is designed to enhance the whisky drinking experience when being enjoyed neat or with water.

The family business, which employs 20 people, launched the glass four years ago, following collaboration between Glencairn Crystal and Scotland's Master Distillers, and the company now supplies more than one million units a year to a global market.

Managing Director Paul Davidson said: “There are specialist glass designs for champagne and brandy, but there had never been one for whisky.

“In a relatively short space of time, the glass has become established world-wide as the definitive whisky glass, by the industry and increasingly by consumers, and we are now looking at expanding further through a network of agents.”

Thursday, April 20, 2006

There are some tastings that afterwards you think: Mmm, that was a good night. And there are some tastings that afterwards you think: Man that was a GREAT night!

Ardbeg Distillery manager Stuart Thomson provided one of the best tastings we’ve had - helped along by some of the finest drams we’ve experienced. There are some who can’t take the smoky Islay offerings, and there are others who consider their lives would be incomplete without a regular dram from that island’s great distilleries. I think club members who count themselves among the former would have been pleasantly surprised last night.

Stuart’s involvement came about because our advertised guide, Glenmorangie’s Master Distiller Bill Lumsden, had to call off at short notice. He sent along the Glenmorangie Artisan Cask to showcase the distillery’s wood management policy. The Artisan was matured in Ozark Mountain oak and designed to capture the young, female, market. It was a soft, fruity and floral dram and enjoyed last night by women and men.

Next up came the Ardbeg selection: the 10 year old, the Uigeadail, and the breathtaking 25-year-old Lord of the Isles – a dram of such beauty that even the £135 retail price tag didn’t appear to be outrageous! (Try telling that to the spouses though).

Stuart proved an immensely likable guide, taking us from his second day at Glenmorangie and confronted by a jet of 39-year-old malt, which had sprung from its cask and was arcing its way over neighbouring casks. Old Tommy showed remarkable presence of mind by stooping, mouth open, to capture the stream before it could go to waste.

He talked movingly of seeing the wreck of Ardbeg for the first time after Glenmorangie saved it from total closure and how he persuaded his wife Jackie that there was, actually, little needed to restore it to its former glory.

And if you ever get the chance to have a natter with him, ask Stuart about the time his two-year-old son Harry noticed there was no Ardbeg on the gantry of a VERY posh country house.

It'll be a long, long time, before the Thomson family can show their faces there again!